The Nightbeast

This morning sun was a welcome sight
for him coming from a troubled night.
His bed left in torrent disarray,
though not from his usual foray.
No woman lay beside him today.
A typical man, built to conquer,
brushing his teeth over the counter,
reflects on the rather eerie scene ██
left embedded in his memory. ██
A darkness he'd never before seen. ████
█
One night awaking in cold sweat, █
surely cannot be such a threat, ███
to leave him as shaken and disturbed █
as his roommate has just now observed.
He felt the laughter was undeserved.
The weak image was easily hidden,
the poor judgment was easily ridden,
and their morning took its usual course;
with their communication dull and sparse,
and attacking work schedules in full force.
Though normal the day, abnormal the night.
From the moment that he turned off the light,
perhaps only an imagined fear, but █████
there is an awful feeling in his gut, █
only strengthening as the door is shut. ██
█
To someone else, it was dark as ever, █
but now worse to his eyes, it was never █ █
so black, so empty, so unseeable ███ █
that it could really be this fearable. ██
The darkness was nearly unbearable. ██
████ █
████████████████████████████ █
██████████████████████ The dim mists of imagination
█████ ███ ████ bore his tenable indignation.
████████████████ Swirling and churning, giving form
█████████████ ███ to the nothingness, though no harm
███ ████████ ███ should come
█████████████████ to him,
███████████████ █ █ right?
█████████████ █████ ███████████████████████
██ ████ ███ █ █ But █████████████████████
█ █ ████ █ there █████████████████
█ ███ ███ █ are ████████████
██ ████ ██ whispers ████████
██ ████ ██ almost audible, ███
█ and forests █ ██ █ ████
██ that are ██ ███ █ █ ███
█ almost ██ █ ███ █
███ visible. ███ ██
███ ██All███ ███
███ ██ ███ from ████ █ ███
██ ███ a dream ██████ ███████
███ not even tangible.███████ ███████
█ █ ███ ████████
Somehow, closing one's ███ █ █████████
eyes in the dark ███████ ███████
is much more comforting ███████ █████████
than the stark, ████████ █████
suffocating madness ████████ ████
and the lonely chillness █████ █ █ █████
of that unwished darkness. ███ █ █████ ████
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Another panicked awakening,
his ragged breathing so hastening,
until bathed in that wonderful light.
His beating heart, though ever so slight,
could finally calm down from the fright.
He thought it sad to be so unsettled
by something he had already settled
when he was a young lad so long ago.
Explaining to them that he couldn't go
dealt an expected blow to his ego.
His roommate relayed his newfound fear,
unto his friends that he once held dear.
There was surprise although not much concern
for a man who can no longer discern
what truly warrants fear. He needs to learn.
Their night's activities turned from clubbing
to intervention. Attempted snubbing
of this childish notion that nighttime
is anything other than that sublime
hour of freedom for those in their prime.
Parties are made with alcohol and girls,
enough to ensure a good time unfurls.
Though their attention turned to his issue,
██ and they drowned the light, his only refuge, ██
███ his stupid fear██soon brunted their abuse. ████
████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███
████████ █████████████████ █
Their torment echoing ██ the dark whispers ██ █
his denied feelings ██ now growing clearer █ ██
giving meaning to ██████ the forested places █
its unknown master ██ ██ ██ now bears their faces. █ █
██████████ ██████████ ████████████████ █ █
███████ One █ ██████ █ ██████ ██
█ cannot fall █ █ ████ █
█ ███ into █████████ ██ ██ ████
██ its good ██ ██ █ ███ █ ██
████ graces. ██████ ██ █ ███ █████ ████
█ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ ██ █████████ ██ ██ █
███ ███ ██ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██
██ ████ █
████████ █████
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
████ █ █ ██ ██ ███ ██ ██ ██ ███ █████████
██████ ██ ██ ████ ███ █ ██ █ ██ █ █ ███ ███ █████████████
█ ██ █ ██ ███ ███ █ █ ██ █ ██████ █████████████
██████████████████ ███ █ ██ █ ██ █ ██████████████████████
████████████████████ ██ ██ █ ██ █ ██ ██ ███
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Soon they left him or perhaps disappeared,
but quickly the dark became all he feared.
A pressure on his chest just below his throat.
A whisper in his ear, dreary, it doth gloat: ██
████████████ Foolish child, fo███
██fo how could you fear the dark? ██ ol██
██ol █████ ████████
████████████████
What manner of horror could this beast be
when turning around yields nothing to see?
Sheer veil of blackness, but always behind
a voice whispering these things most unkind.
A voice whose source he couldn't ever find.
As godly salvation, the light appears.
His drunken friends still there, drinking their beers.
Though wild accusations met stone looks,
his hope held that it was only these fucks
playing him for a few terrible jokes.
When his looniness drove them all away,
only he and his roommate left to stay,
with really not so pleased a look, at that.
He left saying, "Go to bed, scaredy cat."
and then off went the lightswitch, just
█████████████████████████████████████████ like
██████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████
████████████████████that.█████████████████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████ ████████
█████████████████████████████████████ ██████
██████████████████████████████████████ █████
█████████████████████████████████████████ ████
████████████████████████████████████████████ ███
███████████████████████████████████████████ Never ███
████████████████████████████████████████ seen, never ██
███████████████████████████████████ known, a beast ████
███████████████████████████ that exists only out ███████
███████████████████████ of the light, never ex ██████████
█████████████████████ tinguishable not ever █████████████
███████████████████ beatable, certainly █████████████████
███████████████████ not a ███ bit tol- ██████████████████
██████████████████ █ erable. Its grasp ██████████████████
██████████████████ is wholly inescape ███████████████████
███████████████████ able. █ noʎ ǝʇɐɥ ██████████████████
████████████████████ ʍou ██ spuǝıɹɟ ████████████████
███████████████████████ ɹnoʎ ll∀ ███████████
██████████████████████████████████████
And that grasp, like the inability
to breath, wraps round his chest indelibly,
the very moment the trick of darkness
reveals the monster's illusioned forest.
Though first by terror alone, soon distress;
the nightbeast whispers again, █They left you.█
█████ █
Alone in the dark, █████ ██ ███
shaking in this hue. █████████████████████ ██ █████
██████████████████████████ They left you for me ███ ██
██ to do as I wish. ████████ ███████ ██ ██
████████ They left you, you see, ████ ██ ██████
██ as my precious dish. ████████████ ███████ ██
█████████████ ████████████████
█ Despite struggling to move, he remained bound █
█ by nothing that could be felt but the sound █
█ of that woman's voice, tearing down his mind. █
███ Until the prick of a thorn from behind; ███
█████ unwelcome, cold, and equally maligned █████
█████████████████████████████████████████
███████████FOOL██████████████████████████████████████████
████ █████████████████████████████Why████████████████████
█████ ███████████████WHORE████████████████████THE████████
█████ ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
██████ █████FEAR██████████████████████WHY██████████████
███████ ███████████████████████████████████████████████
████████ ███████████████████FOOL██████████████████████
█████████ ███████WHY█████████████████████████████████
██fear████ █████████████████████████████████DARK████
███████████ Like a ██████████████████████PANSY███████████
████████████ snake made █████████████████████████████████
██████████████ of bone, and █████████████████████████████
██████THE███████ coated in thorns ██████████the██████████
██████████████████ it wormed inside then ████████████████
████████████████████ lodged there within ████████████████
██████████████████████ No screams could ██████████FEAR███
████████████████████████ be screamed, a █████████████████
████████████dark?████████ quiet assault █████████████████
██████WHORE██████████████████████████████████DARK████████
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
█ And, of course, it whispered that it's his fault. █
When morning came, there was no more relief,
only the roommate there in disbelief,
gawking at the pool of blood and clothing
that was void of any human being,
wondering what the hell he was seeing.